Richards-Communicative-Language pdf

2  Communicative Language Teaching Today

 1

 

  

What Is Communicative Language 

Teaching?

Perhaps  the  majority  of  language  teachers  today,  when  asked  to  identify  the 

methodology  they  employ  in  their  classrooms,  mention  “communicative”  as 

the methodology of choice. However, when pressed to give a detailed account 

of what they mean by “communicative,” explanations vary widely. Does com-

municative language teaching, or CLT, mean teaching conversation, an absence 

of  grammar  in  a  course,  or  an  emphasis  on  open-ended  discussion  activities 

as the main features of a course? What do you understand by communicative 

language teaching?

Task 1

Which of the statements below do you think characterizes 

communicative language teaching?

 

1.  People learn a language best when using it to do things 

rather than through studying how language works and 

practicing rules.

 

2.  Grammar is no longer important in language teaching.

 

3.  People learn a language through communicating in it.

 

4.  Errors are not important in speaking a language.

 

5.  CLT is only concerned with teaching speaking.

 

6.  Classroom activities should be meaningful and involve 

real communication.

 

7.  Dialogs are not used in CLT.

 

8.  Both accuracy and fluency are goals in CLT.

 

9.  CLT is usually described as a method of teaching.

Communicative language teaching can be understood as a set of prin-

ciples about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the 

kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teach-

ers and learners in the classroom. Let us examine each of these issues in turn.